UCLan signs Melissa Welliver's 'dark' YA novel set in alternate Manchester

UCLan Publishing has signed Melissa Welliver’s "dark", dystopian YA novel The Undying Tower. 

Publisher Hazel Holmes acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Lucy Irvine at Peters Fraser and Dunlop Literary Agents. The novel will be published in paperback in August. 

"The Undying Tower will grab you from its very first line and stay with you long after you’ve finished. I’m so delighted that Melissa has found the perfect home with Hazel and the UCLan team," said Irvine. 

The Undying Tower asks: "What if living forever was a death sentence?". The synopsis says: "From overpopulation to food shortages, the ‘Undying’ have been blamed for the state’s problems, banished to the fringes of society, and punished for every minor infraction."

The publisher continued: "When 16-year-old Sadie is thrust into a cold and cryptic ‘correctional facility’, known as The Tower, she’ll have to rethink everything she’s been told about the Undying population in an attempt to save the life she knows, protect a group of unlikely friends, and give voice to the voiceless in a society on the brink of catastrophic upheaval."